Trans participation in sport is happening now – not only is it not an issue, it makes clubs better | Stephanie Convery

TCommunity sports clubs are feeling no relief amid the political debate over trans athletes competing in women’s sports over the past week. It’s fear: How can we protect our trans gamers from this totally unwarranted attack on their gaming rights?

The Prime Minister has tried to characterize this as an issue affecting ordinary mums and dads “who just want common sense to be applied”. But in my experience, grassroots sport and the community in general are way ahead of this political debate, just as they were on the issue of marriage equality.

Here’s what I know as Vice President of Elsternwick, one of Victoria’s oldest amateur football clubs.

Our path at Elsternwick is a normal one: a club that for more than a century was the preserve of cis men only has made an incredible gear shift in recent years. From the moment it launched a women’s team in 2019, it has been committed to being inclusive; To welcome people of all backgrounds and identities – those with outstanding skills that have been honed over a lifetime and those who have never touched a ball in their lives.

Active steps towards trans inclusion are a necessary part of this process. When I searched for guidance on how the club can best do this, I found a wealth of resources. The notion that the sport is in uncharted waters in this regard is simply wrong.

The highest level of guidance comes from Sport Australia. In partnership with the Australian Human Rights Commission and the Coalition of Major Professional and Participation Sports, in 2019 she published comprehensive guidelines for sport on how to be trans-inclusive and fair, also explaining why it is not only necessary but ideal. The Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission issued its own specific guidelines even earlier, in 2017.

In 2020, the AFL released a policy for its community clubs, allowing players to play for the team that matches their gender identity and non-binary players to play on the team they feel most comfortable on. Trans players are not required to “verify” their gender identity or disclose that they are trans in any way.

These things are really important. As ice hockey player Emily Dwyer wrote for Guardian Australia: “For some trans and gender biased people, experiences or fears of discrimination – intentional, subtle, unintentional – are barriers to participation that remain too high. Isolation and depression are crisis issues for transgender and gender biased people; Participating in sport and social activities can be part of the solution.”

Some sports have rules governing the therapeutic use of testosterone, as competitive sports generally follow the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Anti-Doping Code, in which exogenous testosterone is a prohibited substance.

But Prof Kate Henne, of the Australian National University’s School of Regulation and Global Governance, says the focus on testosterone thresholds as a marker of masculinity or femininity is just the latest flawed method in a long line of different avenues the sport has tried , “test” for sex differences that dates back nearly a century.

“This concern about men’s participation in women’s sport has paralleled the growth of women’s sport and has been a concern of elite administrators more than anything,” says Henne.

The earliest tests were inspections of women’s actual genitals. After there was backlash and regulators decided they were violating athletes’ human rights, there was a trend towards scientific procedures.

“To see politicians conjuring up archaic notions of gender and women’s sport – it really sets us back in terms of participation in sport when we’ve made such big strides. That’s really wrong,” says Henne.

Not all clubs have written their own trans inclusion policies. Evan Lloyd, president of West Brunswick Amateur Football Club, which currently fields six teams, says their strategy was simply “to be nice”.

“It has worked very well so far. Our main focus has always been just removing barriers for players. We just wanted to make it easier for people to play football,” Lloyd said. “The clubs with a good culture are the ones that attract people and grow.”

Inclusivity breeds inclusivity. Since West Brunswick started its first team in the women’s division in 2016, it has grown to three women’s teams and has numerous trans players, partly due to the fact that many women playing football are more connected to the LGBTQI+ community.

“It’s really improved the culture on the men’s side and the overall experience of the club is better for everyone,” Lloyd said. “There’s more families, people bringing their kids down, people reaching out from outside the playgroup more often. I can’t say enough about how much it improved the mood at the club. When everyone is doing well, things really get buzzing.”

One of the best gender differences in sports policy I’ve penned comes from Flying Bats Football Club (that’s the sport of roundball) in Sydney. Founded in 1985 as a safe place for lesbians to play football and socialize, it has evolved over the years and now welcomes “all women – lesbian, queer, bi, straight, cis, trans, intersex – to come and play football play and socialize.

Jen Peden, President of the Bats, says that inclusion policy at the local sports level is about “actually allowing people to play under the competition that suits them best”.

“We didn’t have any official guidelines before 2016, but there have been trans and gender-sensitive actors for years,” says Peden. “However, we wanted to make it clearer so it would feel safer for trans and gender-biased players. We took a stand as a club to make sure they felt welcome and also put a flag in the ground to say we’re not here for trans exclusionary things.”

Desperate at the state of the current debate, Peden notes that many things could be done – like better facilities, more opportunities, more financial support – to help women’s sport that are being lost.

“From the community to the elite, there are so many things that would greatly improve women’s sport in general, but they cost money and effort, and it’s not an opportunity to engage in a culture war against a marginalized group,” says Peden.

Lloyd agrees. “To say that women’s football needs the exclusion of trans people just misses the point.”

Henne’s work supports this, as does research by Monash, which shows that most women who play sports are not concerned about the inclusion of trans women and girls.

One of the many things I’ve learned from playing and volunteering at Elsternwick is that there are so many reasons to believe in basic human decency. Most moms and dads today have a trans person in their life, whether it’s through their kids, work, family, community, or sport. They may not always use the right words and may have to ask many awkward questions, but they recognize the cruel denigration of an already marginalized group when they see them.

One trans player I spoke to put it simply, “I just want to play soccer.” The community sport just wants to keep going to make that happen.

• In Australia, the crisis support service is Lifeline 13 11 14. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. In the UK, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123. You can find more international suicide counseling centers at befrienders.org